The telecom regulator has recommended that Internet service providers (ISPs) pay 8% of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as licence fee, bringing them on a par with mobile phone operators.

The new recommendations will, however, not apply to unified licence holders such as Reliance Jio Infocomm. The Telecom Regulatory authority of India (Trai) has also recommended that companies with an ISP licence with or without broadband wireless access spectrum that was auctioned in 2010, would be liable to pay the licence fee on a presumptive AGR. This would be equal to the 5% of the total auction bid amount that they paid in a particular circle.

The presumptive AGR would only exist as long as the roll-out obligations of the company are still in place or till the time the company has not started services and therefore has no revenue. It is on this presumptive AGR that the company will pay the uniform licence fee.

Mint reported in June 2012 that communications minister Kapil Sibal was looking at implementing an 8% uniform licence fee for ISPs. The concept of presumptive AGR has been introduced to ensure that service providers “make sincere efforts in establishing network and start service at the earliest”, Trai said.